Advani ignores Modi, praises Chouhan for Bhopal conclave

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Tuesday gave credit for the successful party workers' conclave in Bhopal last month to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He. however, made no mention of the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who was the main speaker.

In the latest post on his blog "No full stops in BJP", Advani said over six lakh workers had registered for the "Karyakarta Mahakumbh".

He said about 10 people were drawn from each of the 53,896 polling station areas spread over 51 districts of Madhya Pradesh. The rally was held Sep 25, the birth anniversary of BJP ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya.

Advani said his first yatra, from Somnath to Ayodhya, had also started Sep 25 in 1990."If September 25 of 1990 was important for us in the BJP because of the Somnath to Ayodhya yatra, the same date this year, that is just last month, will always remain etched in our memories because of the all time record number of party activists who assembled at Bhopal, and that too activists of just one state - Madhya Pradesh."

Advani said all central leaders were present at the conclave.

"Assembled in front of them were as many as 649,702 party workers, who had formally registered themselves for this unique conclave, with average of at least 10 drawn from each of the 53,896 polling stations spread over 51 districts of the state. It is what I witnessed this day in Bhopal that made me sincerely feel that for the BJP, there are no full stops," he said.

Advani said preparations for the workers conclave had been going on for several months but the public had not been invited.

"The Bhopal conclave planned by Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narendra Singh Tomar (BJP MP unit chief) was a karyakarta sammelan (workers' meeting). The public was not invited. I doubt if any other political party in the country has even the capability of achieving anything of this kind," he said.

"Someone rightly remarked: No one could have conceived a better tribute to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's memory than what Madhya Pradesh has done this year," Advani added.